Faded Light
by Maximillian Havisham
Summary: In a world once filled with light, darkness now reigns supreme. This is the END.


Nothing.

No matter how long END looked out from the balcony on high nothing had changed. The land was bare, most of the seas had long since dried up, and the streets were lined with bodies long dead and decomposed.

"Staring out into space again? You know there's nothing out there. Hasn't been for years."

From behind him appeared Mirajane Strauss.

"I know."

"Then what are you looking for?"

END sighed. "I don't know. Something. It's so boring now there's nothing to fight and kill. A revolution. A resistance. Hell I'd even take one of you guys betraying me right now. At least **that** would be kind of exciting."

"You wanna fight I'll be happy to give you one."

Gray Fullbuster leaned in the doorway of END's chambers; a cockshire grin on his lips.

"No thanks." Natsu waved off. "I'm grown bored of fighting you."

Gray sighed. "Yeah. Me too. Guess it had to happen sometime. Anyway, Freed and Minerva are downstairs. Looks like they found something while on patrol."

"We should go see what they found. Right?" Mirajane suggested.

"Yeah. I guess." END groaned.

The three travelled through the halls of what used to be known as Mercurius Palace, now the home of New Tartaros. Upon entering the grand hall, they were met by both Freed Justine and Minerva Orland, who were patiently waiting at the roundtable.

The hall had seen some decoration over the years. Having been adorned with trinkets, items, and equipment from fallen foes: Erza Scarlet's cracked Heart Kruez armor, the broken remains of the thirteen zodiac keys that once belonged to Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Aguria, a piece of the battleship Christina, Makarov Dreyar's Wizard Saint cloak, and various other things.

"What'd you find this time?" Gray asked. "More resistance members?"

"No." Freed answered. "I think it's safe to say we've effectively silenced them for good." He opened an archive screen above the table. "It seems there have been irregular movements coming from Magnolia."

"Magnolia?" Mirajane repeated with a hint of surprise. "That certainly brings back memories."

"The town has been deserted for years." Gray stated.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Rough estimate is about a week or so." Minerva reported.

"Why are we just hearing about it now?" Mirajane questioned.

"I mentioned before the movement is irregular." Freed reminded. "There will be a steady signal for about a day or so before completely dying out and picking up again a few days later."

"The entire city is being protected by some kind of barrier." Minerva said. "It's blocking the video feed from the lacrima."

Natsu smirked. "Guess we have go check it out the old fashioned way. I was just thinking about going for a walk anyway."

* * *

An hours fly was all it took for the members of New Tartaros to reach Magnolia. When they landed they were astonished at what they saw.

The entire town had been rebuilt from the ground up, almost as if it had never been destroyed.

"What is this?" Minerva asked. "This shouldn't be possible. The town was but a crater a few days ago."

"It's not real." Freed pointed out. "This is an illusion."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Look there."

Gray pointed up and Minerva followed his arm with her uncovered eye. Floating in air was the symbol of the long eradicated Fairy Tail guild.

"Fairy Sphere." Mirajane concluded.

"One of the three great Fairy Magics? I thought those died along with Cana Alberona and Laxus Dreyar."

"Clearly that wasn't the case." Freed said. "How should we proceed, Natsu? She could be setting a trap for us."

"Probably." END placed his hand on the barrier, in a matter of moments it shattered to pieces. "But we should at least pay her a visit."

The demons walked through the illusionary Magnolia, not sparing a glance at the "people" all around them.

It was funny. Before, seeing a sight like this would bring a rush of nostalgia for Natsu, Mirajane, Gray, and Freed, but now it all meant nothing. Their emotions for this town as well as it's former inhabitants were just as empty and dead as the illusions now populating it. All they felt was indifference.

Before long they reached their destination. The Fairy Tail guild hall.

"I almost forgot she was still alive." Gray said.

"Well she **is** immortal." Mirajane reminded. "There isn't much else she can do at this point **but** live."

"Just who in the world are you two talking about?" Minerva inquired. "Who is immortal aside from us?"

"You'll see soon." Freed told her.

When Natsu pushed open the doors he and his companions were joyfully greeted by the "members" of the Fairy Tail guild. Each of them wore big smiles on their faces, some holding up glasses of beer and other drinks, as they laughed and enjoyed themselves.

"Damn." Gray commented.

"It's almost sad." Mirajane admitted.

"It certainly is." Freed nodded solemnly.

"Mavis!" Natsu called. "That's enough! Come out!"

Slowly the mirage before them began to fade, and the pristine guild revealed its true face. It's banisters were broken, it's stage was in shambles, and the roof overhead was completely gone; exposing the blood red sky above.

From behind the broken remains of the bar shambled Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's first master.

Her dress was torn to shreds, her hair was a disheveled mess, her body was littered with scars, and her bare feet were stained on the bottom with blood from walking on rocks and broken wood.

"So this is the first master of Fairy Tail." Minerva surmised. "She looks like a child."

"She was afflicted with the Contradictory Curse when she was only a little girl." Freed explained. "As such she remains like this for all eternity, destined to kill everyone she holds dear should they get too close."

"Such a sad existence."

"It's the only punishment for one who does not understand life and death."

"Natsu…Mirajane…Gray…Freed." Mavis muttered weakly. When she saw the four former members of her guild she mustered up a pained smile, her empty eyes widening slowly with life.

"What are doing, First Master?" Mirajane asked. Some small part of her still respected Mavis enough to address her by that name. "We made it clear you were no longer allowed to use magic."

"I-I'm sorry. I couldn't help it." Mavis explained shakily. She anxiously rubbed her arms as she spoke, her eyes never looking directly at the demons. "I just got so lonely and-"

"We had a deal." Gray sternly reminded her. "You don't use your magic, and we let you stay in this town."

"I-I-I know."

"Then why did you disobey us?" Freed demanded.

Mavis shrunk back. "I-I'm sorry. It's just…I…I wanted to see all of you." She started to smile again. "I wanted to know if you were doing well and-"

"Mavis." Natsu's voice instantly quieted the the broken girl. "Don't you get it yet? We're not your 'children' anymore."

Mavis' eyes started to narrow in anger as she shook. She glared at the demons, hot tears streaming down her face.

"How can you say such things?!" she shouted. "Don't you feel any regret about what you've done?! You killed everyone! Your friends **and** your enemies! There's no one left! The world has gone to hell and you all are the cause! How can you not feel anything from that?! Did Fairy Tail teach you nothing?!" she sobbed. "We're supposed to be a family. To smile in both good times and bad. We were supposed to make the world a better place to live..."

"Fairy Tail is dead."

END approached the First Master, his eyes showing no hint of remorse or compassion for the girl.

"Those ideals of yours were nothing but a child's fantasy. This world is a cruel place, and only the strong are equipped to survive it. Do fairies exist? No. But demons certainly do."

Mavis' world shattered. Her body growing numb, she fell to her knees in despair. At once the entire illusion over Magnolia faded, revealing the town for what it really was. Dead.

"If you use magic again, we will drag you back with us and lock you away just like Zeref." He violently pulled her hair until she was forced to look up at him. "Do you understand?"

"Y-yes." she acknowledged. "I understand. I'll...I'll never use magic again."

"Good." Natsu let go. "We're leaving."

He walked out of the ruined guild, the rest of New Tartaros right behind him.

"I almost feel sorry for her." Mirajane said.

"I don't." Gray said.

"Perhaps now she has come to her senses." Freed added. "This world is no place for naïve children."

"Are we really leaving her to her own devices?" Minerva asked Natsu.

"Fairy Heart's gone. She can't do anything else **but** use illusion magic, and we've stopped her from even doing that. If she wants to rot away in a dead town then I say we let her. It's not like there is anything else she can do."

* * *

Mavis frantically searched through the rubble of the guild hall for something, her hands calloused and numb.

"Where is it?! I know it's here!"

Using all of her strength to move a piece of debris from the bar, she found a faded picture nesteled in a broken frame. On it depicted were all the former members of Fairy Tail.

As she looked at the smiling faces of those long dead she hugging the picture close to her chest, the anguished cries from her broken heart echoing through the dead town.

* * *

 **Another thumbnail one-shot! Wow two in one day. That's gotta be a record or something for me. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the original artist of the picture, but it got my brain flowing with ideas. It's been in the doc for a while and I finally got around to posting it.**

 **Obviously this one was much darker than the one I posted earlier today. Stories like this aren't usually my forte, but I thought it would be fun to try it. I think it turned out relatively well.**

 **As always leave a comment/review letting me know what you think. Thanks for reading! :)**


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